Tag Archive | "Enroth"

Alexander Ovechkin continues to do what he can to try to carry the Capitals into the playoffs and on Tuesday night in Buffalo he got some excellent help from defensemen Mike Green.

The Gr8 scored the first two Capitals goals, his 37th and 38th of the season, and then he assisted on the last two, including a great pass to Game Over Green for the winner in overtime.

It was a wild affair against a not so talented but gritty Buffalo squad and Washington prevailed, 5-4.

In my last blog, I made it clear that Ovechkin is still the most valuable player to his team in the NHL and this game once again made that case.

With the Capitals struggling mightily in their own end, it was on the offense to pull this game out. We all know that Alexander the Great is a pure goal scorer, but his passing skills are often overlooked and vastly underrated by those who aren’t paying close attention. How many other NHLers could have made the pass to Martin Erat late in period two on the power play that set up Troy Brouwer for Washington’s 4th goal? Not too many have the combination of power and finesse necessary to get that puck to sit on Erat’s stick through a maze of players so quickly.

Then, on the game winner, the Gr8 slides a perfect pass to Green, much like he did for Casey Wellman on Saturday, giving Sabres goalie Curtis Enroth no chance to stop Green’s shot and the Caps win.

The win moves Washington to 24-21-8 (56 points) and they are just a point out of a playoff spot after two straight victories. The Capitals have six games left before the Olympic break and the next three are against teams in front of them (Detroit twice and Columbus). The other three are the Islanders, Winnipeg, and New Jersey. A good streak before the league shutdown seems imperative given the tough schedule facing the Capitals in March.

However, if they want to do well in this upcoming stretch, they have to do certain things much better. Defensively, the Capitals were far too loose in their own zone. Bad coverage, turnovers, and penalties led to four goals by an offensively challenged Buffalo club. We are 53 games into the season and these same mistakes continue to occur. If Washington wants to make the playoffs then they need to eliminate or seriously reduce the frequency of these miscues. The hockey department and coaches have to find an answer to these issues quickly if they want to make the post season.

Another disturbing thing was the way Sabres Mike Weber took liberties with Marcus Johansson and Nicklas Backstrom. You simply can’t count on the referees, and especially when it is two clowns like Paul Devorski and Don VanMassenhoven, to protect your players. Once Weber gave that cheap shot to MJ90 someone on the Caps should’ve let him know physically that if that happened again he was going to be seeing stars for weeks. Where was John Erskine, Tom Wilson, Jason Chimera, or Troy Brouwer to make Weber pay for his cheap shot on Johansson? If Backstrom gets hurt by the late game elbow from Weber then their playoff chances go to 0!

Look, I am all for self discipline, but there are places and times to send a message in a hockey game and it was disappointing and alarming that Weber wasn’t made to pay for his hit on MJ90. By letting that go, they risked injury to other players. Unacceptable. Like or not, protecting your players is a part of the NHL game today.

Braden Holtby made some big stops in net in his second straight start. Yes, he gave up four tallies, but his defense left him out to dry too many times.

Overall, this was a sloppy effort but the Ovechkin and Green show carried the day.

Two points were pretty much a must in Buffalo and now Washington has back to back tilts with Columbus and Detroit on Thursday and Friday.

It’s nice that the offense is back, thanks primarily to the Gr8 and the Caps increasing willingness to crash the net, but if they want to be more consistent, they have to do a better job of protecting their own net.

Notes: Shots on goal were 35-27 for the Caps, but Buffalo dominated the 3rd period, 13-5. The Sabres played the night before so it was disappointing that the Caps were able to be outplayed in the 3rd period when they should’ve been the fresher squad…the Caps went 2 for 3 on the power play while Buffalo was 1 for 2…Green’s first goal, which came on a sweet wraparound, was the 100th of his NHL career…Martin Erat had two assists in one of his better games of the season…the Caps lost the face off battle, 36-28…shot attempts were 55-53, in favor of the Caps.

It was 3-1 Sabres going into the third period and the Washington Capitals season was basically on the line.

Sure they were carrying much of the play after a horrid first 20 minutes, but the way Jhonas Enroth (35 saves) was going it wasn’t looking good for the Caps

Even after Troy Brouwer scored on a shorthanded goal set up by Braden Holtby (yes, you read that correctly), the Caps were down a puck and had to pull their goalie in the last minute to try and tie the game. Fortunately Mike Green lasered one in with 40 seconds remaining and then Matt Hendricks and Alexander Ovechkin scored on the first two Caps shootout tries while the two Buffalo shooters failed to tally to give Washington a huge 4-3 comeback victory.

It was two points the Caps had to have and they found a way to get it against a bad Buffalo squad.

The win pulls Washington to within five points of Southeast Division leading Winnipeg (and the Caps have 2 games in hand) and they are now just two points in back of the 8th place New York Rangers, who continue to lose under dictator John Tortorella despite having a very talented roster.

With the trade deadline fast approaching on Wednesday, the Capitals players had a big chance to show their general manager that they still have a club that can make the post season with the three games in four nights that started on Saturday in Buffalo. A loss to one of the weaker clubs, the Sabres, would surely signal that George McPhee should get on the phone and start selling. Well, this win keeps the “add players to improve the team” option open to McPhee and they have a chance to increase the probability of that option on Sunday night when they take on the Flyers in Philadelphia at 6 pm.

There were lots of good things in this victory. Ovechkin was all over the ice and his stat line for the contest reads:

It is pretty obvious that the Gr8, who notched his 17th tally of the season, is trying as hard as possible to carry his club out of its huge standings hole and into the post season. He has been playing extremely well since being reunited with Nicklas Backstrom a couple of weeks ago.

Holtby (20 saves and an assist) probably should have had the first tally by Christian Ehrhoff but the other two, by Ville Leino, were layups as Washington played poorly in their own end for stretches in the first two periods. #70 made some big stops to give his club a chance to come back and tie it and then he did his job, along with the post, in the shootout.

Overall, the effort was really there after a slow start, which might have been due to four days off. It was clear which club wanted it more at the end and as a result, the Capitals found a way to win.

The poor play in their own end, especially to start the game, must stop immediately. This is two straight games that the opponents are getting the lead goal because the Capitals are sleep walking in their zone. Remember what happened the last time the Caps went to Philadelphia? The Flyers scored on the very first shift and Washington had no chance and were smoked. A good start to correcting the defensive zone would be to sit Jeff Schultz and put Dmitry Orlov back in. #55 did not look good at all in his 11 plus minutes of action, which appeared to me to be a showcasing scenario. Washington needs to be prepared for the physical play they’ll get from the Flyers forwards.

So the Caps improve to 16-17-1 and will try for the third time this season to reach the .500 mark. The last two times they had bad starts and lost to the Islanders. Will things be different in the City of Brotherly Love on Sunday?

If the Caps players want to stay together and not be sold off at the deadline, they better find a way to get it done on Sunday.

But for Saturday night and into early Sunday morning the Capitals are still in the race. They were on the ropes but found a way to get it done in Buffalo.

So go ahead and crank up the Bee Gees after this one, because as sure as Barry Gibb and his brothers sang it back in the 1970’s, the Caps are living that theme tonight after a huge comeback against the Sabres.

“Feel the City Breakin’ and Everybody Shakin’ and we’re stayin’ Alive, stayin’ Alive”

Notes: The attempted shots were 66 to 41 in favor of Washington…the Caps won the faceoff battle, 32-29, which included a big win by Brouwer right before Green tied the game…Wojtek Wolski suited up and played only 8:23. The injury to Eric Fehr is hurting the lineup as #16 was playing well this season…Down a level, Philip Grubauer stopped 37 shots as Hershey rallied to defeat Providence, 3-2 on Satruday night. The Bears improve to 32-26-3-6 (73 points) and remain in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with nine games left in the regular season.